Spotify causes significant battery drain on Pixel 8 Pro

[Jimbobler]

Pixel 8 Pro, Android 14, Spotify Premium build 8.8.76.667, Sweden.

Brand new phone and first day of use, and installed the app earlier today.  Spotify has somehow managed to drain 38% (!) of battery with 4 minutes screen time and 4h 44 mins background activity: https://ibb.co/TrG4jW6. I'm unsure about the length of background activity, too, since I've only been listening to podcasts and some music for two hours tops before completely closing the app. No downloads of playlists or music, either. 

The phone was warm to the touch for several hours after installation. The temperature dropped immediately after disabling Spotify from being able to perform background tasks. 

In the "View by systems" tab in Systems > Battery > Battery usage, it's clear that the CPU has drained a majority of the battery (33% vs 13% for screen) since it was fully charged, even though I haven't been doing any CPU intensive tasks for any length of time. 

Super weird, and it's the only time this has happened on any of the smartphones I've had Spotify installed on over the years. 

[ryanadanderson]

version 8.9.48.575

com.spotify.music

Android 14 

pixel 8 

Higher than expected battery usage

I was using podcasts (freakonomics radio) at 1x speed while driving around. The episodes were shown to be down loaded. I had Google maps open primarily. 

  only noticed today - never checked before. No troubleshooting steps have been taken. 

[Joan]

Hi folks,

Thanks for all your replies. We'll continue to look into this based on the info we have. Whatever other device info or attempted troubleshooting you have, please let us know. The more we have, the better it will aid our investigation.

@ryanadanderson could you also try the troubleshooting already suggested in this thread and let us know how it goes. Also consider trying the following:

• Does this only happen when used simultaneously with Google Maps? Does it also happen by itself or while using other apps?
• Are your Google and Spotify accounts linked?
• Are the episodes you played downloaded and do you have the setting enabled to download automatically?
• Do you have the option to download over mobile data enabled?
• Was the app in offline mode?

Let us know how it goes.

[JensDoe]

Hi Joan,
Here is another one. Today I listened to a podcast for about 10 minutes while on my way to work. Maps was not active while listening.
Android 15 Beta 3. Latest Spotify from Play Store (not in beta).

[dslashdx]

Brand new Pixel 8a.

Android 14version 8.9.50.552 com.spotify.music

Similar problems as everyone else, high battery usage for the two days I've owned the phone. I tried the clean install instructions from earlier in the thread with zero improvement. Phone is warm to the touch. Did not experience these issues with my previous Pixel 5a.

This thread is about a year old with people reporting consistently the same issue in the same circumstances. Can Spotify not purchase a new Pixel 8, turn on developer mode and do some diagnostics? Seems like you all are ignoring users which is a great way to get them to switch services, i know i will if this continues.

[Maria]

Hey there folks,

Thanks for sending us some more details - we appreciate it!

This has been passed onto our tech folks, so that they can have a look as well. While we can't provide you with a specific timeframe, make sure to keep your device's OS and the app up-to-date in the meantime. We'll keep you posted here when we have any news to share.

Should you come across this thread and experience similar issue, feel free to leave a comment with the details requested by @AlejaR earlier in the thread.

Cheers!

[jonas1210]

Same issues on Google Pixel 8A.

Seems a Pixel issue.

Do something about it, otherwise considering about cancelling my subscription.

[BatteryDrain]

Same problem here.

Device: Pixel 8a

Android 14

App-Version: 8.9.56.618

Battery drain: 

[Idontcare13]

I have a pixel 6a and the same problem. Until last month everything was fine, but now it's getting hot and the battery consumption is at 20%. 

Everything up to date, no energy saving mode.

Clean reinstall didn't change anything 

[Plasma7620]

Same happening on my brand new Pixel 8a on Android 14 running Spotify 8.9.58.572 so basically a fresh install, only 5 days old. 

While working I streamed some music from Spotify to my Sony SRS XB20 Bluetooth Speakers and got this battery usage, almost nothing was done on the phone for the majority of the day, yet the battery drained quite fast. 

Spotify usage was around 10 to 16 with almost no other usage and the screen on for 30 minutes max

 

[xiaoagent]

Plan

Premium

Country

Singapore

Device

Pixel 6

Operating System

Android 14

My Question or Issue

Spotify Version: 8.9.66.543

My pixel updated to the latest Spotify Version in the late afternoon (+8 GMT) on 14 August. When I have interactions with Spotify app, the entire phone displays a random pixelated bar, becomes unresponsive and goes into a reboot loop which causes my phone to be unusable for ~30 minutes. 

I have tried clearing cache and reinstalling Spotify but the issue still persist. This is becoming a time consuming experiment. I have deleted the Spotify App for now as I require other features of my phone.